Ming the Mechanic:
Prison and the Net

The NewsLog of Flemming Funch
 Prison and the Net2005-04-18 19:50
5 comments
picture by Flemming Funch

Yahoo News: Inmates in U.S. using intermediaries to escape into Internet, about how some prison inmates succeed in getting a voice on the net, by passing messages on to others who post them on websites.

I right away get to think of my friend Bruce Lisker. And it is sad that he isn't mentioned there. Bruce is in prison for life for the murder of his mother. A very brutal murder. She was beaten with a steel bar, strangled and stabbed. In upscale Sherman Oaks, close to where I used to live. He didn't do it, though. His Dad didn't think he did it. Nobody in his family believes he did it. I don't think he did it. But he was the first person on the scene, and her blood got all over his clothes as he tried in vain to revive her, while he was waiting for the ambulance. And at the time he was a doped out 17 year old loser who indeed was hanging out with the type of people who would do such a thing. It was easy to believe he would be the guy, and a crooked cop did a sloppy investigation and covered it up. It shortly became very clear to Bruce and his Dad who actually did it, but that person has since committed suicide. And Bruce is having trouble getting his case opened up again. He's been in prison for 22 years now. He's today a decent, polite person, who writes poetry and has learned computer programming and studied the law.

I helped him put up that site. It was since taken over by somebody else and I'm no longer hosting it, and it seems to look exactly like I left it. I don't even know how to get hold of Bruce. I haven't spoken with him for several years. The inmate e-mail address, which normally would print out e-mails and send them to him, is no longer working. But I'm pretty sure he didn't go anywhere.

At the time the main way he could contact me was to make a 15 minute collect call once per week or so. Which would be interrupted every minute by a recording announcing that one is speaking with a prison inmate. Anyway, that's how he orchestrated his website, and by having documents sent to me.

It was fairly odd. In part because he had never ever been on the Internet. He studied Cobol programming in jail, but they're not allowed near anything that's on the net. So he hadn't actually seen a webpage in real life. He had read about all of it in magazines. But it is a little difficult to have a sense of it when you've never seen it. Nevertheless, it was an example of what the articles talks about. Getting some kind of voice on the net, having a website, translated from phone calls and letters and legal documents.

The fact that he isn't one of the people mentioned in an article like that, and that 60 Minutes never got around to doing a feature on him, and the fact that he's still rotting in jail, is an indication that it doesn't necessarily go anywhere, even if one gets one's place on the web. Nobody's linking to that site. Other than me, by having mentioned it here previously. The only other existence Bruce has on the net is a contact ad from inmate.com, with an e-mail address that isn't working.

It can be hard to prove one's innocence if nobody's listening.


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5 comments

18 Apr 2005 @ 21:29 by astrid : Oooohhhh my, God, Ming...
This is "too much" to find any intelligent words/statements to comment with!.... My only Question; how many Bruce/s are there, rotting unjustly in the CORPORATION 'Prison' (still) Today???!?!??!....
I always thought the RCC was the Oldest still ticking Corp in the world, but now I realize that it is in fact the PRISON-System, that is the oldest!...and Man's cruelty to Man is its main Energy FUEL, and has always been!!!....
Did I understand correct: you have no way to get in touch with Bruce today? Why not change that hologram for a more Life Affirming: start receiving this surprice telephone call and hear bruce's voice filled with Victory and Joy when finally fiding you again!... Such a victory might be the catalyst to the next victory: get his case opened up and Bruce proved Innocent and freed!... LET DIVINE JUSTICE RULE! At least this will be the Image I will envision for Bruce (& you) plus for all the other INNOCENTS in Prison, regardless of Country/Nation.  



18 Apr 2005 @ 22:34 by ming : Bruce
Well, I'm sure I could contact his family and find the correct address to write to. For that matter, it was just that I suddenly felt a little bad about not having written to him, and not even having thought much about it, and I tried the inmate e-mail address on that page, and sent him a message, and it instantly came back as invalid.

I had put a lot of work into his site. But there was more he needed, and I didn't really have the time, so somebody else took it over. But apparently never got anywhere, or they didn't agree on what to do, I don't know. But I was out of the loop from then on. Which I'm not feeling great about, as I can see that nothing more happened.

Actually my last contact was when I unexpectedly got a CD in the mail, with a thank-you note from his step sister, who's a recording artist, who's name you'd probably recognize. And, alas, even with a loving family and friends and supporters, one might still rot in jail, if one can't get the legal stuff to flow in the right direction.

Anyway, yes, I hope it somehow magically works out for him.  



19 Apr 2005 @ 00:31 by astrid : yES,
Long Live Divine Magic and Divine Intervention! : ) Thanks Ming. His site is quite nice! I checked it out pretty thoroughly.  


25 Apr 2005 @ 19:30 by taranga @217.158.116.59 : Justice
Is there no American equivalent of the uk Rough Justice tv programme which takes up cases like these?  


18 Oct 2013 @ 20:09 by PadillaFAY @31.184.238.21 : re
Urgent college essay can be complicated to complete, peculiarly when you have got tight period of time. Nevertheless, at last you have got great resolution, you can buy paper writing and satisfy your academic needs.  


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2011-11-03 16:51: Seeing the world through the Internet
2009-06-11 18:53: Blogging/Microblogging and work
2008-02-23 17:19: Web 1, 2, 3 and 4
2008-02-22 11:07: Illusion
2008-01-09 22:45: A Communication Model
2007-12-02 20:41: Give One Get One
2007-10-25 21:47: Static or dynamic web metaphors
2007-09-18 22:54: Rethinking blogs
2007-07-04 23:59: Scrutiny of Information



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